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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | DECEMBER 21, 2000 STAFF & BENEFITS By Jill Hamburg Coplan Putting a Little Faith in Diversity The smart manager sees the holiday season as an opportunity to inspire loyalty by accommodating the spiritual needs of all employees, whether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim
In 1999, when an Israeli expatriate started CrediView, a Silicon Valley online security firm, it didn't occur to him that his staff wouldn't be in sync at holiday time. CrediView is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., with an office in New Jersey, and research and development facilities in Tel Aviv, Israel. With 40 international, electronically wired employees providing real-time online fraud protection, CrediView found it needed to accommodate the needs of a very busy, very diverse staff. Before he knew it, company founder and President Ron Rymon, faced the thorny issue of deciding who would work, who would be off, and when. So Rymon and his executives looked to the code of corporate values, which included respect for local customs and the desirability of diversity, that had been drawn up soon after CrediView's launch. In the end, once it was decided that the decisions were best left to managers' discretion, almost no one in either the U.S. or Israel operations will take an extended holiday, says Yair Noam, Tel Aviv-based vice-president for software development. "We're a startup, and it's a 24/7 operation," he said. "I'll be lucky if I get time off next February." HUNGRY AND TIRED. It's not unheard of for managers to be blind to the needs of people who belong to a different religion. One oft-cited example is of a Christian manager setting the deadline for a big project during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began this year on Nov. 27 and requires the faithful to fast from dawn until dusk to honor the revelation of the Koran to Mohammed. In addition to piling overtime hours on thirsty and fatigued workers, a big project also prevents Muslims from getting to festive, fast-breaking meals at sundown with family and friends -- as well as gatherings for Eid al-Fitter, the three-day holiday at Ramadan's end. The problem could be worse this year for companies with heavy yearend workloads. For the first time in a generation, Ramadan falls just before Christmas (because of Islam's lunar cycle, it is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and shifts from year to year). This year, Hanukah also begins just a few days before the customary Christmas break. As businesses and managers get comfortable with the spiritual -- including yoga and meditation in motivational programs -- experts say the traditional religious needs of an increasingly diverse workforce are, ironically, getting short shrift. RELIGIOUS GRIEVANCES. Though they still lag behind sexual harassment and disability suits, the number of religious-discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been growing steadily -- rising to 1,811 last year from 1,584 in 1998. The most common problem? Not getting time off for holy days. "We receive complaints almost daily," says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C. (cair-net.org), which has mediated disputes between employees and companies like McDonald's and Office Max. He notes that the U.S. is now home to 6 million Muslims. As the country's fastest-growing religion, it is likely to eventually overtake Judaism as American's No. 2 faith. The rise in lawsuits is no surprise, says Marc Stern, legal director for the American Jewish Congress and an adviser on religion to the White House. "It's striking how ill-informed and thoughtless employers are -- they know all about sexual harassment, accommodating the handicapped, and age and racial discrimination, but no one ever talks to them about religious accommodation," Stern says. LEGAL TROUBLES. Very few U.S. companies -- whether small or large -- have policies regarding minority religious holiday observances, says the Society for Human Resource Management (shrm.org). And only about 55% of large corporations offer personal days that employees can use for religious observance. Instead, when faced with an unusual request like an early departure for a Ramadan meal at sundown, "Employers are hesitant to look for creative ways to accommodate because of the inconvenience or fears they'll be accused of favoritism," says Latricia Good, SHRM's spokeswoman. And small-business owners may also assume it will cost too much. That's probably unwise. Religious discrimination has the potential to be a litigation nightmare, says Cliff Palesfsky, an employment lawyer in San Francisco. Unlike with other claims of discrimination, an employee doesn't have to prove illegal motives -- only a refusal to accommodate. The governing law is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was expanded in 1997 by The White House Guidelines on Religious Exercise and Expression in the Federal Workplace (though they cover only federal workplaces, they're widely considered a private-sector standard). The rules say, in short, that employers must make "reasonable accommodation" of workers' religious practices -- including allowing observance of a Sabbath or religious holiday -- as long as it won't cause an "undue hardship" or increase administrative costs. LOYALTY DIVIDEND. Undue hardship might arise if a Muslim wanted to work Christmas in exchange for Ramadan, for example, but the building's heating was turned off. A bona fide effort is all that's required, Palefsky says, adding that absolute accommodation isn't necessary. Instead of incurring costs, business owners can get lots of mileage with just a modicum of good will, experts say. Simply acknowledging minority holidays doesn't cost anything -- and it's more than paid back in loyalty, says Lobna Ismail, the executive director of Connecting Cultures, a diversity-training firm in Silver Spring, Md. She suggests: * Allowing Muslims to trade lunch for an early departure during Ramadan. * Sending employees Eid al-Fitr, Kwanza, or Hanukah cards by e-mail. * Holding office holiday parties after sundown. * Indicating the dates of Hanukah and Ramadan on the company calendar. And be creative. CrediView is using this holiday season as an excuse for an international exchange. The company is sending its top four U.S. executives to Israel while their Israeli counterparts head to California. Though the employees will be working, they'll travel with their families, who'll be able to enjoy some sightseeing. For more information see An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices at CAIR's Web site and the EEOC's Fact sheet on religious discrimination and Guidelines on Religious Exercise and Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace (eeoc.gov).  Jill Hamburg Coplan has covered work, family, business, and finance for the past decade as a writer and editor for newspapers, magazines, and wire services. She left Working Woman magazine, where she was senior editor, when her first child was born and now works solo from a home office in Brooklyn, N.Y. Edited by Robin J. Phillips  | | |
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